Method and system for entry, transfer, storage, transmission and retrieval of medical, health and healthcare related data

Abstract

A system and method for end-to-end entering, storing and maintaining a person's medical data that is critically needed to be known to among others, first responders and healthcare providers when they intervene, a device to be carried, worn by or implanted internally in the patient at all times, a device to be carried by first responders and other healthcare providers or fixed at healthcare facilities and offices that enables retrieving the emergency medical data, a server with a database for secure storage and retrieval of the medical data for all of the patients, and a communication system for relaying the medical data to the hospital before the patient arrives to the emergency/triage station and a wireless self-organizing network for assuring communications in case commercial wireless networks are unavailable or malfunctioning.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A system for providing emergency access to medical data of an individual, the system comprising:
 a provisioning computer system configured to implement automated machine-to-machine provisioning that automatically:
 imports medical data from an Electronic Health Record/Electronic Medical Record (EHR/EMR) system in a first format; 
 categorizes the medical data into emergency and non-emergency data; 
 modifies the medical data such that it is stored in a secure database in a second format displayable by a healthcare provider device; and 
 maps the emergency data to a unique identifier associated with the individual; 
 
 a patient device comprising radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip that encodes the unique identifier; and 
 the healthcare provider device comprising a smartphone that is configured to:
 retrieve the unique identifier from the patient device by interacting with the RFID chip; 
 access the emergency data stored in the secure database;
 corresponding to the unique identifier; and 
 in the second format displayable on the healthcare provider device; and 
 
 submit, to the provisioning computer system, an update to the medical data in the second format; 
 
 
       wherein, based on the update received from the healthcare provider device, the provisioning computer system is further configured to automatically:
 modify the update to the medical data received from the healthcare provider device into the first format used by the EHR/EMR system; 
 synchronize the EHR/EMR system with the update to the medical data in the first format; 
 locate additional medical data stored in the EHR/EMR system that is pertinent to the update to the medical data received from the healthcare provider device; 
 import the additional medical data into the secure database; 
 link the additional medical data to the emergency data; and 
 transmit the additional medical data to a target healthcare facility along with the emergency data. 
 
     
     
       2. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the provisioning computer system is configured to:
 i) import the medical data from multiple EHR/EMR systems over a dedicated client-server interface that communicates with an application program interface of a secure computer server; 
 ii) categorize said medical data into said emergency data and said non-emergency data; and 
 iii) within the secure database, map said emergency data with the unique identifier. 
 
     
     
       3. The system of  claim 2 , wherein the provisioning computer system is further configured to:
 i) automatically import the medical data over a dedicated machine-to-machine interface connected to each of the EHR/EMR systems; and 
 ii) automatically categorize said medical data into said emergency data and said non-emergency data in accordance with prior privacy choices of the individual. 
 
     
     
       4. The system of  claim 1  wherein:
 said unique identifier is encoded in a scannable barcode; and 
 the patient device is configured to present the scannable barcode to provide the healthcare provider device access to the emergency data. 
 
     
     
       5. The system of  claim 1  wherein:
 the RFID chip is a near-field communication tag and 
 the patient device is configured to provide the healthcare provider device access to the emergency data via the near-field communication tag. 
 
     
     
       6. The system of  claim 1  wherein:
 the healthcare provider device is configured to authenticate the individual before the emergency data is accessed by the healthcare provider device. 
 
     
     
       7. The system of  claim 4  wherein said barcode is printed on the patient device. 
     
     
       8. The system of  claim 5  wherein said near-field communication tag is embedded into said patient device. 
     
     
       9. The system of  claim 1  wherein: in response to scanning a barcode on the patient device, the healthcare provider device is configured to transmit authentication information captured from the individual to a medical data server associated with the secure database. 
     
     
       10. The system of  claim 1  wherein the healthcare provider device is one of a plurality of healthcare provider devices and the plurality of healthcare provider devices are configured to form a self-organizing communications network. 
     
     
       11. The system of  claim 10  wherein the self-organizing communications network is configured to provide wireless communications capabilities to each of the healthcare provider devices by linking at least a first healthcare provider device to at least a second healthcare provider device within wireless communication range of the first healthcare provider device. 
     
     
       12. The system of  claim 11  wherein the first and second healthcare provider devices each act as a node in a private wireless network comprising the plurality of healthcare provider devices. 
     
     
       13. The system of  claim 12  wherein at least one of the healthcare provider devices has a connection to a wireless gateway linked to a wireline infrastructure. 
     
     
       14. The system of  claim 12  wherein each of the healthcare provider devices is configured to dynamically act as a node on the private wireless network in response to detecting that a conventional communication network is unavailable. 
     
     
       15. The system of  claim 12  wherein said self-organizing communications network is configured such that any one of said healthcare provider devices in said private wireless network that is connected to a wireless gateway linked to a wireline infrastructure relays provided information from said private wireless network to the target healthcare facility via the wireless gateway. 
     
     
       16. The system of  claim 10  wherein said self-organizing communications network is secured through utilization of encryption to secure transmission of the emergency data. 
     
     
       17. The system of  claim 1  further comprising a medical data computer server that is configured:
 to receive, from the healthcare provider device, details of a medical incident associated with the individual; and 
 in response to the receiving the details of the medical incident:
 retrieve, from the secure database, the additional medical data that is pertinent to the medical incident; and 
 transmit the additional medical data to the healthcare provider device. 
 
 
     
     
       18. The system of  claim 1  further comprising a medical data computer server that is configured to relay the emergency data and the additional medical data to the target healthcare facility. 
     
     
       19. The system of  claim 1  wherein the medical data computer server is further configured to, in response to receiving the update to the medical data from the healthcare provider device in the second format:
 convert the update to the medical data into the first format that is acceptable by the EHR/EMR system; and 
 synchronize the EHR/EMR system with the update to the medical data in the first format. 
 
     
     
       20. The system of  claim 1  wherein the secure database is hosted on a medical data computer server and the medical data computer server is configured to transmit the emergency data and the additional medical data to the target healthcare facility in a third format.